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Topic: Quotes of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (Read 336242 times)

Q: It seems to me that in your talks you use the words 'naturally' and 'accidentally' indiscriminately.I feel there is a deep difference in the meaning of the two words. The natural is orderly, subject tolaw; one can trust nature; the accidental is chaotic, unexpected, unpredictable. One could plead thateverything is natural, subject to nature's laws; to maintain that everything is accidental, without anycause, is surely an exaggeration.

M: Would you like it better if I use the word 'spontaneous' instead of 'accidental'?

Q: You may use the word 'spontaneous' or 'natural' as opposed to 'accidental'. In the accidentalthere is the element of disorder, of chaos. An accident is always a breach of rules, an exception, asurprise.

M: Is not life itself a stream of surprises?

Q: There is harmony in nature. The accidental is a disturbance.

M: You speak as a person, limited in time and space, reduced to the contents of a body and amind. What you like, you call 'natural' and what you dislike, you call 'accidental'.

Q: I like the natural, and the law-abiding, the expected and I fear the law-breaking, the disorderly,the unexpected, the meaningless. The accidental is always monstrous. There may be so-called'lucky accidents', but they only prove the rule that in an accident-prone universe life would beimpossible.

M: I feel there is a misunderstanding. By 'accidental' I mean something to which no known lawapplies. When I say everything is accidental, uncaused, I only mean that the causes and the lawsaccording to which they operate are beyond our knowing, or even imagining. If you call what youtake to be orderly, harmonious, predictable, to be natural, then what obeys higher laws and ismoved by higher powers may be called spontaneous. Thus, we shall have two natural orders: thepersonal and predictable and the impersonal, or super-personal, and unpredictable. Call it lowernature and higher nature and drop the word accidental. As you grow in knowledge and insight, theborderline between lower and higher nature keeps on receding, but the two remain until they areseen as one. For, in fact, everything is most wonderfully inexplicable!

Q: Science explains a lot

M: Science deals with names and shapes, quantities and qualities, patterns and laws; it is all rightin its own place. But life is to be lived; there is no time for analysis. The response must beinstantaneous -- hence the importance of the spontaneous, the timeless. It is in the unknown thatwe live and move. the known is the past.

Q: I can take my stand on what I feel I am. I am an individual, a person among persons. Somepeople are integrated and harmonised, and some are not. Some live effortlessly, respondspontaneously to every situation correctly, doing full justice to the need of the moment, while others fumble, err and generally make a nuisance of themselves. The harmonised people may be callednatural, ruled by law, while the disintegrated are chaotic and subject to accidents.

M: The very idea of chaos presupposes the sense of the orderly, the organic, the inter-related.Chaos and cosmos: are they not two aspects of the same state?

Q: But you seem to say that all is chaos, accidental, unpredictable.

M: Yes, in the sense that not all the laws of being are known and not all events are predictable.The more you are able to understand, the more the universe becomes satisfactory, emotionally andmentally. Reality is good and beautiful; we create the chaos.

Q: If you mean to say that it is the free will of man that causes accidents, I would agree. But wehave not yet discussed free will.

M: Your order is what gives you pleasure and disorder is what gives you pain.

Q: You may put it that way, but do not tell me that the two are one. Talk to me in my own language-- the language of an individual in search of happiness. I do not want to be misled by non-dualistictalks.

M: What makes you believe that you are a separate individual?

Q: I behave as an individual. I function on my own. I consider myself primarily, and others only inrelation to myself. In short, I am busy with myself.

M: Well, go on being busy with yourself. On what business have you come here?

Q: On my old business of making myself safe and happy. I confess I have not been toosuccessful. I am neither safe nor happy. Therefore, you find me here. This place is new to me, butmy reason for coming here is old: the search for safe happiness, happy safety. So far I did not findit. Can you help me?

M: What was never lost can never be found. Your very search for safety and joy keeps you awayfrom them. Stop searching, cease losing. The disease is simple and the remedy equally simple. It isyour mind only that makes you insecure and unhappy. Anticipation makes you insecure, memory --unhappy. Stop misusing your mind and all will be well with you. You need not set it right -- it will setitself right, as soon as you give up all concern with the past and the future and live entirely in thenow.

Q: But the now has no dimension. I shall become a nobody, a nothing !

M: Exactly. As nothing and nobody you are safe and happy. You can have the experience for theasking. Just try.But let us go back to what is accidental and what is spontaneous, or natural. You said nature isorderly while accident is a sign of chaos. I denied the difference and said that we call an event accidental when its causes are untraceable. There is no place for chaos in nature. Only in the mindof man there is chaos. The mind does not grasp the whole -- its focus is very narrow. It seesfragments only and fails to perceive the picture. Just as a man who hears sounds, but does notunderstand the language, may accuse the speaker of meaningless jabbering, and be altogetherwrong. What to one is a chaotic stream of sounds is a beautiful poem to another.King Janaka once dreamt that he was a beggar. On waking up he asked his Guru -- Vasishta: Am Ia king dreaming of being a beggar, or a beggar dreaming of being a king? The Guru answered: Youare neither, you are both. You are, and yet you are not what you think yourself to be. You arebecause you behave accordingly; you are not because it does not last. Can you be a king or abeggar for ever? All must change. You are what does not change. What are you? Janaka said: Yes,I am neither king nor beggar, I am the dispassionate witness. The Guru said. This is your lastillusion that you are a jnani, that you are different from, and superior to, the common man. Againyou identify yourself with your mind, in this case a well-behaved and in every way an exemplarymind. As long as you see the least difference, you are a stranger to reality. You are on the level ofthe mind. When the 'I am myself' goes, the 'I am all' comes. When the 'I am all' goes, 'I am' comes.When even 'I am' goes, reality alone is and in it every 'I am' is preserved and glorified. Diversitywithout separateness is the Ultimate that the mind can touch. Beyond that all activity ceases,because in it all goals are reached and all purposes fulfilled.

M: With being arising in consciousness, the ideas of what you are arise in your mind as well aswhat you should be. This brings forth desire and action and the process of becoming begins.Becoming has, apparently, no beginning and no end, for it restarts every moment. With thecessation of imagination and desire, becoming ceases and the being this or that merges into purebeing, which is not describable, only experienceable.The world appears to you so overwhelmingly real, because you think of it all the time; ceasethinking of it and it will dissolve into thin mist. You need not forget; when desire and fear end,bondage also ends. It is the emotional involvement, the pattern of likes and dislikes which we callcharacter and temperament, that create the bondage.

Q: Without desire and fear what motive is there for action?

M: None, unless you consider love of life, of righteousness, of beauty, motive enough. Do not beafraid of freedom from desire and fear. It enables you to live a life so different from all you know, somuch more intense and interesting, that, truly, by losing all you gain all.

Q: Since you count your spiritual ancestry from Rishi Dattatreya, are we right in believing that youand all your predecessors are reincarnations of the Rishi?

M: You may believe in whatever you like and if you act on your belief, you will get the fruits of it; butto me it has no importance. I am what I am and this is enough for me. I have no desire to identifymyself with anybody, however illustrious. Nor do I feel the need to take myths for reality. I am onlyinterested in ignorance and the freedom from ignorance. The proper role of a Guru is to dispelignorance in the hearts and minds of his disciples. Once the disciple has understood, the confirmingaction is up to him. Nobody can act for another. And if he does not act rightly, it only means that hehas not understood and that the Guru's work is not over.

Q: There must be some hopeless cases too?

M: None is hopeless. Obstacles can be overcome. What life cannot mend, death will end, but theGuru cannot fail.

Q: What gives you the assurance?

M: The Guru and man's inner reality are really one and work together towards the same goal -- the redemption and salvation of the mind They cannot fail. Out of the very boulders that obstruct themthey build their bridges. Consciousness is not the whole of being -- there are other levels on whichman is much more co-operative. The Guru is at home on all levels and his energy and patience areinexhaustible.

Q: You keep on telling me that I am dreaming and that it is high time I should wake up. How doesit happen that the Maharaj, who has come to me in my dreams, has not succeeded in waking meup? He keeps on urging and reminding, but the dream continues.

M: It is because you have not really understood that you are dreaming. This is the essence ofbondage -- the mixing of the real with unreal. In your present state only the sense 'I am' refers toreality; the 'what' and the 'how I am' are illusions imposed by destiny, or accident.

Q: When did the dream begin?

M: It appears to be beginningless, but in fact it is only now. From moment to moment you arerenewing it. Once you have seen that you are dreaming, you shall wake up. But you do not see,because you want the dream to continue. A day will come when you will long for the ending of thedream, with all your heart and mind, and be willing to pay any price; the price will be dispassion anddetachment, the loss of interest in the dream itself.

M: It appears to be beginningless, but in fact it is only now. From moment to moment you arerenewing it. Once you have seen that you are dreaming, you shall wake up. But you do not see,because you want the dream to continue. A day will come when you will long for the ending of thedream, with all your heart and mind, and be willing to pay any price; the price will be dispassion anddetachment, the loss of interest in the dream itself.

Absolutely fantastic isnt it ? I particularly love "moment by moment you are renewing it" ! That is a very powerful statement. Sayings and teachings of Sri Nissargadatta maharaj are wonderful indeed.

Yes,indeed! Maharaj's words are so potent and powerful,that they shake the very ground on which we are standing. After all,those are the words of Truth,and He is such a strong character. Something between Bhagavan and some fierce Zen Master .

M: Did they save? They have come and gone -- and the world plods on. Of course, they did a lot and opened new dimensions in the human mind. But to talk of saving the world is an exaggeration.

Q: Is there no salvation for the world?

M: Which world do you want to save? The world of your own projection? Save it yourself. My world? Show me my world and I shall deal with it. I am not aware of any world separate from myself, which I am free to save or not to save. What business have you with saving the world, when all the world needs is to be saved from YOU? Get out of the picture and see whether there is anything left to save.

Q: You seem to stress the point that without you your world would not have existed and therefore the only thing you can do for it is to wind up the show. This is not a way out. Even if the world were of my own creation, this knowledge does not save it. It only explains it. The question remains: why did I create such a wretched world and what can I do to change it? You seem to say: forget it all and admire your own glory. Surely, you don't mean it. The description of a disease and its causes does not cure it. What we need is the right medicine.

M: The description and causation are the remedy for a disease caused by obtuseness and stupidity. Just like a deficiency disease is cured through the supply of the missing factor, so are the diseases of living cured by a good dose of intelligent detachment. (viveka-vairagya).

Q: You cannot save the world by preaching counsels of perfection. People are as they are. Must they suffer?

M: As long as they are as they are, there is no escape from suffering. Remove the sense of separateness and there will be no conflict.

- Nisargadatta Maharaj, I AM THAT ch 29

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However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them? - Buddha

Q: To integrate and strengthen the mind is not an easy task! How does one begin?

M: You can start only from where you are. You are here and now, you cannot get out of here and now.

Q: But what can I do here and now?

M: You can be aware of your being -- here and now.

Q: That is all?

M: That is all. There is nothing more to it.

Q: All my waking and dreaming I am conscious of myself. It does not help me much.

M: You were aware of thinking, feeling, doing. You were not aware of your being.

Q: What is the new factor you want me to bring in?

M: The attitude of pure witnessing, of watching the events without taking part in them.

Q: What will it do to me?

M: Weak-mindedness is due to lack of intelligence, of understanding, which again is the result of non-awareness. By striving for awareness you bring your mind together and strengthen it.

Q: I may be fully aware of what is going on, and yet quite unable to influence it in any way.

M: You are mistaken. What is going on is a projection of your mind. A weak mind cannot control its own projections. Be aware, therefore, of your mind and its projections. You cannot control what you do not know. On the other hand, knowledge gives power. In practice, it is very simple. To control yourself -- know yourself.

Q: Maybe, I can come to control myself, but shall I be able to deal with the chaos in the world?

M: There is no chaos in the world, except the chaos which your mind creates. It is self-created in the sense that at its very center is the false idea of oneself as a thing different and separate from other things.

In reality, you are not a thing, nor separate. You are the infinite potentiality; the inexhaustible possibility. Because you are, all can be. The universe is but a partial manifestation of your limitless capacity to become.

- Nisargadatta Maharaj, I AM THAT ch 30

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However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them? - Buddha

Who is a Sadguru? He is that ever prevailing principle which witness appearance and disappearance of the unreal. My talks lead to subtle knowledge, which is difficult to register and retain in memory. Rama didn't know that he was Parabrahman until his Guru told him 'you are Parabrahman', even Parabrahman has to be reminded.In the process of understanding in this way I (Maharaj) got annihilated.

Q: Where does this need of consciousness to see itself as everything come from?

M: You know that you are, and you love to be, hence the necessity. Although you have been saying that you under?stood, there is some hitch somewhere, isn't there?

Q: One card. I am holding back one card.

M: Throw it out! Where is the loss? Give up the game. You listen to my talks or don't listen. You come here or don?t come here. I know what you are, what you were prior to your 'I amness'. Before your parents met, I know you. I know your knowingness after your parents met, how it got transformed to various stages, how it developed in different images, I know all that. Suppose a person is a hundred twenty-five years old; since childhood he has grown into vari?ous stages, learned a lot worldly things. Now whatever he has learned or gained, everything has gone, and he is lying on a bed, and what remains now? Only that child-consciousness, that child-ignorance, remains. And that also will go. Will it go to heaven or hell? No; the ignorance has sprung up and the ignorance will disappear.

Q: The question then is, if that ignorance can disappear only through that process of time or can it be stopped now?

M: Even in between. It is sustained by food and water. If this is not supplied it will go, disappear.

Q: But it has gone in the case of Maharaj and there is a supply of food and water there. So what I am asking is, is that process inevitable, or can it just end now?

M: You have to meditate. It won't be available free. The necessary threshold is through consciousness only. You have to imbibe and be consciousness. In the process of being in the consciousness, you come out of it, and there you see; and meditation is the only remedy.

Q: The more you get into consciousness, the more im?possible it seems to transcend it.

M: Give it a fair trial. Be in beingness. Try to be in beingness. You won?t get it here and now. Step number one is: Be yourself, be in your beingness only. Although, to start with, I am the Immanent Spirit 'I Am' you have to be in that beingness without the body sense. You feel that you are the body now, but when you abide in that beingness you will know then how you are without the body. But don't forget, at the same time, that body and vital breath are very neces?sary. Once you understand these three entities correctly [body, vital breath and the message 'I Am'], then you are apart. The knower of these three entities will not be caught by the parents.

Q: When Maharaj was immersed in his beingness, what exactly did he understand that made him transcend consciousness?

M: You know TV? Meditate and you will know as tangibly as you see TV. You will see then: I am not the TV screen, the observer of TV is not in the set. In the process of meditation, more knowledge will be awakened, will be real?ized by you, and, in the same process, you will understand that whatever you have understood you are not.

Q: That's why I was saying before that the more con?sciousness was conscious of itself, the larger the concept, the knowledge.

M: Yes, it will happen, a living cosmos, a million uni?verses are in your consciousness.

Q: What about the knower?

M: The knower and whatever is known, both will go. Nothing will remain stable, permanent. This triangle, father, mother, and you, how did it happen? Inquire about that, meditate on that.

Q: Isn't it the same thing, father, mother, and I; just a flow of that consciousness?

M: Don't talk, try to understand. Just talking about eating will not fill your stomach, you have to actually eat. You will not get eternal peace with knowledge derived out of words, only by Self-knowledge, Self-realization.

Questioner: In pursuing what Maharaj says, the result may be a type of behavior which will beconsidered peculiar in the world.

Maharaj: Whose behavior? And considered peculiar by whom? All that IS is the essence of thefive elements. By this aperception, the nature of the five elements is not going to change. Theessence of the five elements is this momentary sense of presence, as compared to eternity.You come here with a sense of love and regard for me, and you will benefit to the extent ofhow you perceive me. If you continue to see me as an individual, that will be the extent of yourbenefits; if you see me as I see myself, and as I see you, that will be the further measure of yourbenefits. The real state is that state which was prior to the arrival of consciousness. Very few willhave reached that state. Most of you will not want to go beyond identification with an entity or abody.This identification, which has been changing from infancy to your present state, and which willcontinue to change in the course of time, is purely seasonal.You identify with the body on the strength of hearsay. Your parents told you that you wereborn on a certain date, and that this body is what you are. So, based on hearsay, you formed youridentity with a certain image. You may think that now you have become jnanis and that you knowyour identity very well, but most often this is a case of sensory deception. Whatever your image ofyourself, it is nothing but a concept.Just understand what you are, and carry on your daily life to the best of your ability.

Questioner: I was here last year. Now I am again before you. What makes me come I really do not know, but somehow I cannot forget you.

Maharaj: Some forget, some do not, according to their destinies, which you may call chance, if you prefer.

Q: Between chance and destiny there is a basic difference.

M: Only in your mind. In fact, you do not know what causes what? Destiny is only a blanket word to cover up your ignorance. Chance is another word.

Q: Without knowledge of causes and their results can there be freedom?

M: Causes and results are infinite in number and variety. Everything affects everything. In this universe, when one thing changes, everything changes. Hence the great power of man in changing the world by changing himself.

Q: According to your own words, you have, by the grace of your Guru, changed radically some forty years ago. Yet the world remains as it had been before.

M: My world has changed completely. Yours remains the same, for you have not changed.

Q: How is it that your change has not affected me?

M: Because there was no communion between us. Do not consider yourself as separate from me and we shall at once share in the common state.

Q: I have some property in the United States which I intend to sell and buy some land in the Himalayas. I shall build a house, lay out a garden, get two or three cows and live quietly. People tell me that property and quiet are not compatible, that I shall at once get into trouble with officials, neighbours and thieves. Is it inevitable?

M: The least you can expect is an endless succession of visitors who will make your abode into a free and open guesthouse. Better accept your life as it shapes, go home and look after your wife with love and care. Nobody else needs you. Your dreams of glory will land you in more trouble.

Q: It is not glory that I seek. I seek Reality.

M: For this you need a well-ordered and quiet life, peace of mind and immense earnestness. At every moment whatever comes to you unasked, comes from God and will surely help you, if you make the fullest use of it. It is only what you strive for, out of your own imagination and desire, that gives you trouble.

Q: Is destiny the same as grace?

M: Absolutely. Accept life as it comes and you will find it a blessing.

Q: I can accept my own life. How can I accept the sort of life others are compelled to live?

M: You are accepting it anyhow. The sorrows of others do not interfere with your pleasures. If you were really compassionate, you would have abandoned long ago all self-concern and entered the state from which alone you can really help.

Q: If I have a big house and enough land, I may create an Ashram, with individual rooms; common meditation hall, canteen, library, office etc.

M: Ashrams are not made, they happen. You cannot start nor prevent them, as you cannot start or stop a river. Too many factors are involved in the creation of a successful Ashram and your inner maturity is only one of them. Of course, if you are ignorant of your real being, whatever you do must turn to ashes. You cannot imitate a Guru and get away with it. All hypocrisy will end in disaster.

Q: What is the harm in behaving like a saint even before being one?

M: Rehearsing saintliness is a sadhana. It is perfectly all right. provided no merit is claimed.

Q: How can I know whether I am able to start an Ashram unless I try?

M: As long as you take yourself to be a person, a body and a mind, separate from the stream of life, having a will of its own, pursuing its own aims, you are living merely on the surface and whatever you do will be short-lived and of little value, mere straw to feed the flames of vanity. You must put in true worth before you can expect something real. What is your worth?

Q: By what measure shall I measure it?

M: Look at the content of your mind. You are what you think about. Are you not most of the time busy with your own little person and its daily needs?The value of regular meditation is that it takes you away from the humdrum of daily routine and reminds you that you are not what you believe yourself to be. But even remembering is not enough -- action must follow conviction. Don't be like the rich man who has made a detailed will, but refuses to die.

Q: Is not gradualness the law of life?

M: Oh, no. The preparation alone is gradual, the change itself is sudden and complete. Gradual change does not take you to a new level of conscious being. You need courage to let go.

Q: I admit it is courage that I lack.

M: It is because you are not fully convinced. Complete conviction generates both desire and courage. And meditation is the art of achieving faith through understanding. In meditation you consider the teaching received, in all its aspects and repeatedly, until out of clarity confidence is born and, with confidence, action. Conviction and action are inseparable. If action does not follow conviction, examine your convictions, don't accuse yourself of lack of courage. Self-depreciation will take you nowhere. Without clarity and emotional assent of what use is will?

Q: What do you mean by emotional assent? Am I not to act against my desires?

M: You will not act against your desires. Clarity is not enough. Energy comes from love -- you must love to act -- whatever the shape and object of your love. Without clarity and charity courage is destructive. People at war are often wonderfully courageous, but what of it?

Q: I see quite clearly that all I want is a house in a garden where I shall live in peace. Why should I not act on my desire?

M: By all means, act. But do not forget the inevitable, unexpected. Without rain your garden will not flourish. You need courage for adventure.

M: The entire approach is wrong. Action delayed is action abandoned. There may be other chances for other actions, but the present moment is lost -- irretrievably lost. All preparation is for the future -- you cannot prepare for the present.

Q: What is wrong with preparing for the future?

M: Acting in the now is not much helped by your preparations. Clarity is now, action is now. Thinking of being ready impedes action. And action is the touchstone of reality.

Q: Even when we act without conviction?

M: You cannot live without action, and behind each action there is some fear or desire. Ultimately, all you do is based on your conviction that the world is real and independent of yourself. Were you convinced of the contrary, your behaviour would have been quite different.

Q: There is nothing wrong with my convictions; my actions are shaped by circumstances.

M: In other words, you are convinced of the reality of your circumstances, of the world in which you live. Trace the world to its source and you will find that before the world was, you were and when the world is no longer, you remain. Find your timeless being and your action will bear it testimony. Did you find it?

Q: No, I did not.

M: Then what else have you to do? Surely, this is the most urgent task. You cannot see yourself as independent of everything unless you drop everything and remain unsupported and undefined. Once you know yourself, it is immaterial what you do, but to realise your independence, you must test it by letting go all you were dependent on. The realised man lives on the level of the absolutes; his wisdom, love and courage are complete, there is nothing relative about him. Therefore he must prove himself by tests more stringent, undergo trials more demanding. The tester, the tested and the set up for testing are all within; it is an inner drama to which none can be a party.